The Ultimate Race Tips

Your marathon absolute must-know.

Everything you need to know before the race.

The more you know, the less stressed you will be.

All these little things that stress you out, and you ignore unless you already experienced a big race.

The 10°C rule

Dress as though it were about 10°C warmer than the actual temperature.

For a race, I'd generally dress slightly lighter than for an easy training run because you're producing more heat.

At 10°C on marathon morning, shorts + singlet/T-shirt is perfectly reasonable, while you can wear an old sweatshirt, poncho or throwaway layer before the start.

Yes, you will make it to your corral!

Unless of course you wake up an hour before the start, no stress! There is always some time to make it to the start line, and the organisers are usually not that strict and let you in. Worse case, you will start with a slower and later corral which might be not a too bad thing.

Your watch GPS might go banana

The buildings and the crowd will definitely challenge the GPS of your watch and give you a wrong pace or mileage.

No panic, that's normal and it will be corrected at the end when your run will be saved!

Don't forget to change the screen of your watch to a "race mode" with only the timer and heartbeat, or anything less stressing for you. How to know if you hit the right racing pace? Check my next tip!

You need to know your time laps

Unless you just want to finish your race without any time challenge - lucky you - you will need help to pace yourself when the GPS says no.

It's not easy to find the tattoos like I had in Chicago, usually I just write it myself with a sweat resistant pen.

You don't need to write the time for every km or mile. At least the first km to make sure you don't start too fast, half way and close to the end.

I might not easy to calculate, especially if you plan a negative split. Ask ChatGPT for help as I did, but VERIFY! Nothing more wrong than working on a wrong plan.

Follow the blue line

If there is any! The blue line is the shortest way to finish the race but it's not on every marathon. In other words, do not zigzag between runners! First, you are using a lot of energy and you are adding mileage to a distance that it already long. For exemple, I ran 43,04km at Tokyo marathon, 800m extra!

The station aid strategy

It takes some little strategy to pass by the station aid smoothly. First and most important, skip the first tables. The first volunteers/tables tend to be crowded because everyone dives for the first cup. Slow down slightly before the hand-off - you don't need to stop. Grab rather than snatch and aim for the upper half of the cup. Immediately pinch the top into a little V/spout — it dramatically reduces water going up your nose or all over your shirt. 😅

Walking is not cheating

It can even be a strategy to calm your heart beat down and save some energy to reset the machine.

The easiest and smartest way to do it is at the aid station, after grabbing your water. Walk a few seconds to drink and take your gel efficiently. Accelerate gradually afterward. Don't sprint to recover the 5–10 seconds you lost. Just return smoothly to marathon pace over the next 100 m.

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